This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Councillors and residents are wondering how Mayor Susan Fennell and staff could have racked up $622,000 in credit card charges alone without proper oversight.

Brampton Councillor Vicky Dhillon called it "an embarrassment" that councillors were unaware of how much Mayor Susan Fennell and her staff had been spending, much of it hidden in other city budgets and spent without any accountability. (Chris So / Toronto Star)

Brampton councillors and residents are wondering how Mayor Susan Fennell and her staff could have racked up $622,000 in credit card charges since 2007 without many of the costs being clearly reported.

One example is Fennell’s Highway 407 toll costs. While other councillors came under fire recently for expensing as little as $50 a year in tolls — some told the Star the trips were for city business — Fennell was left looking good because there were no such charges reported on her budget.

But credit card statements obtained by the Star under freedom of information laws show Fennell actually racked up almost $1,000 in tolls in 2012 alone, but paid through a credit card issued to one of her staff.

She did not respond to the Star’s request for an explanation.

“Some of us were aware that (Fennell) was charging many of her costs to other departmental accounts that don’t show up in the reporting to council with all the details,” Councillor John Sprovieri said after the Star’s revelations.

Article Continued Below

Asked if he knew that Fennell had charged $4,400 for a flight to London, England, in 2007 and $5,600 for her hotel stay there at the InterContinental, Councillor Bob Callahan responded: “Oh, hell no. Not at all. I knew she went, but I didn’t know she was there for more than 10 days. She only has to show up at city hall once every two weeks for (full) council, so we wouldn’t have noticed if she was missing.”

Fennell’s rationale for going to London on the city’s dime, with about 10 staff, was that Brampton was a finalist in the now-defunct World Leadership Awards.

Councillor Vicky Dhillon admitted he was unaware of many of Fennell’s past expenses. “We’ve never seen those things. We’ve just found out from (the media). It’s an embarrassment.”

A city spokesperson said more time is needed to provide details about why Fennell’s expenses were not clearly reported or if oversight mechanisms were removed.

“I understand that monitoring was removed at some point,” Councillor John Hutton said, adding that he had assumed Fennell’s expenses were scrutinized. “I assumed wrongly that they were being closely checked.”

Prior to February 2011, the mayor was authorized to approve her own expenses. A new policy created then didn’t add a requirement to have the finance department approve them.

Council has since changed that. But how all of Fennell’s past expenses, including those deflected to other department’s budgets, will be accurately tallied remains unclear.

Among those expenses were 39 charges at Shoppers Drug Mart over six years, totalling $3,000. Dhillon said he has a hard time buying the explanation given by Fennell’s chief of staff, Ian Newman, at Wednesday’s council meeting.

“You can’t buy $3,000 of water from Shoppers Drug Mart,” Dhillon said, adding that the disclosures the Star obtained through freedom of information law were provided to councillors on Thursday.

Longtime resident Sandip Rana, a senior finance executive was among dozens of residents who contacted the Star to express their anger.

“As a finance professional I just don’t understand how this has been allowed to go on for so long. Where are the controls? What is internal audit doing?”

“Perhaps she can learn from (former Alberta premier) Alison Redford, who resigned after her spending habits came to light. In my view the mayor has stolen from (Brampton residents). She should be ashamed of herself and step down.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com